Where Does Terror Begin?

From a background op-ed:-

Just over a week ago the BBC screened some footage from a similar landmark episode in the life of some girls in a Middle Eastern school.

Beautifully turned out, and with faces shining, the children sang a carefully prepared anthem for their parents, friends and relatives. But the lyrics committed to heart by the girls of the al-Khalil al-Rahman Young Girls’ Association sat a little incongruously with the innocence of their appearance.

“We all sacrifice ourselves for our country,” they sang. “We answer your call and make of our skulls a ladder to your glory. A ladder.”

The song was recorded for a Panorama special presented by the veteran BBC reporter, John Ware. Ware was investigating how donations to the charity Interpal, which is dedicated to helping Palestinians in need, had been spent.

Interpal exists to support widows, orphans and others in need in the Palestinian territories. And no-one can deny that there is desperate poverty among Palestinians, which touches many hearts. But Ware’s painstaking work suggested that some of the institutions which benefit from that generosity are linked to the terrorist organisation, Hamas.

Interpal says that it is politically neutral in the collection and distribution of its funds, and that it has twice been investigated by the Charity Commission, which found that the organisation had no links to terrorists. Interpal has also won an apology and retraction from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, acknowledging that it is not a terrorist organisation.

But in the course of Ware’s investigation we saw young girls dancing to music which proclaimed: “Fasten your bomb belt, oh would-be martyr, and fill the square with blood so that we get back our homeland.”

Ware also aired serious allegations that Interpal is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide organisation dedicated to establishing a politicised form of Islamic fundamentalism. We saw the spiritual head of the Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, arguing that “we must plant the love of death and the love of martyrdom in the Islamic nation”. And we also saw the Sheikh being embraced by Ken Livingstone on a recent visit to London.

I mentioned Ware’s Panorama on this page briefly last week, and felt no need to go into detail because I expected that the nature of his allegations would lead to further investigation and inquiry from people better placed than me to ask what was being done in the name of charity. But there has been next-to-no follow-up on his investigative work.

The Charity Commission has acknowledged that its past investigations into Interpal have not been “in depth”, and it is to be hoped that they now take Ware’s allegations seriously.

But the responsibility to act doesn’t end there. Interpal’s Chairman, Ibrahim Hewitt, was a member of the Government’s own taskforce on preventing extremism. He has also sat on the national council of George Galloway’s Respect Party.

At a time when conflict rages in the Middle East and we all pray for the violence to end, it is more important than ever that we consider how these things start.

It is natural, in a time-pressured world, where we scarcely have a moment to enjoy with our own families, to believe that all one can do in the way of helping to end the suffering is simply to join the chorus demanding a ceasefire.

But don’t we owe our children, and the children of the Middle East, a few moments more reflection and questioning? What are the chances of a lasting peace when young girls are taught to celebrate suicide bombings in kindergarten? And what are we going to do about it?